Improvement in processes of treating skins



JAMES KENT, OF GLOVERSVILLE, NENV YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN PROCESSES OF TREATING SKINS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. KEMS,672, dated October 30, 1877; application filed August 2, 1877.

1 but have been heretofore considered worthless for producing a fine and soft leather with a caster-finish of surface, as is generally produced from skins of other animals, such as gazelles, chamois, stillborn lambs, small goat kid chevieux, etc.

The structure of the Mocha sheep skins imported from Mocha, Arabia, and known to the trade as Mocha skins, differs from the skins of other animals, as the same operations with them as are had with the skins of other animals will not produce the same result. Hence they have to be treated difi'erently to produce a eastor-dressed leather.

It should be understood that caster-finish leather has heretofore been made only from skins of animals which would friz at the same time the process of unhairing is being had that is to say, when,by a propertool, the hair is being rcmovcdfromthe skin. The enticle or outer L yer of the skin will be at the same time removed in a ready manner, and leave a frizzed surface, which is subsequently worked up into a velvety appearance, which is known to the trade as the caster-finish.

It should also be. further understood that those skins of animals which will not friz when unhaired, but nip, have heretofore been considered unfit to produce castor leather; hence their use heretofore has been limited to other kinds of leather, in which the outer or grain surface or flesh surface was to receive the finish. To this latter class of skins the Mocha sheep and lamb skins belong, and though its texture, strength, and thinness are such as to render it a desirable skin from which to make glove-leather, yet it has not heretofore been employed by the trade for producing castor leather, not only because the skin would not friz, but also because, between the body of the skin and the cuticle, there exists what is termed by the trade the send, which is excessively filled with oil or fatty secretions, which will work up and render the skin incapable of receivingacastor-finish. Beneath this scud there is a line body which is susceptible of being worked up into a fine and silky nap, which will produce a caster-finish of siufacc far superior, in both appearance and fact, to the caster-finish given to skins which readily friz and expose a surface that will receive a nap.

In the process of producing my new article of manufacture, I proceed in the usual manner with the skin, and unhair the same as practiced by the trade, after which I treat the skin with a solution of an alkaline nature that will enter below the cuticle and act on the scud. I then friz the skin, and remove the send also down to the body or ground, or what is known as the middle substance of the skin, and lay the same uniformlyexposed; after which I work up the surface with an emery-wheel or bucking-machine, in the manner heretofore practiced by the trade, or by the process described in a former invention of my own, for which Letters Patent of the United States have been issued to me.

The leather thus made will e of a fine castor character, and have a surface of fine silk-y charaeteiyfree from spots or greasy appearance, while the body of the skinof the leather will itself be film to holdstitches, soft as kid, and strong to resist a heavy strain, and in every way adapted for glove material, while at thcsamc time the appearance of the finish of the nap-surlace will be lwllel' than ordinary caster leather.

llaving described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

lhe process of treating the unhaired skins of Mocha sheep and lambs by first submitting them to the action of an alkaline solution that is capable of entering below the outer cu tiele and acting on the send beneath, to prepare it for a ready and uniform removal; and, secondly, in the removal of the send and exposure of the middle substance of the skin to the operation of an emery-wheel or bucking;- machine, substantially as and for the purpose set forth. JAMES KENT.

Witnesses CYRUs STEWART, HENRY LANG-Emmett. 

